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THE UNIVERSE OF DEMONS AND THE WORLD DURING THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
Leander Petzoldt
; Institut für Volkskunde, Innsbruck, Österreich
Sažetak
Belief in demons and spirits of elements has been spread already in ancient times, but the it spread during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the scholarly literature and oral narratives of the time, and primarily through personal accounts on supernatural phenomena. The research of beliefs starts from the subjective reliability of such accounts. Beliefs and oral tradition are therefore, along with the natural-historical and philosophical records from the Renaissance until the eighteenth century, the most important source for research on notions of demons and spirits of elements.
What makes it difficult to describe the important features of demons, as they appear in the beliefs of Western peoples, is the vagueness and elusiveness of their beings, the richness of the transfigurations of their forms, and the instability of their characters. Demons are creatures from beliefs and narratives, but at the same time they are phenomena that are made concrete through oral stories.
The author gives us an outlook of the development of belief in demons from the ancient times until today. He describes the mediaeval notions on demons and points to the complex genesis and development of demonic creatures by presenting selected examples.
Ključne riječi
demons; spirits of elements; Europe
Hrčak ID:
27790
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2003.
Posjeta: 755 *